Chapter 7: Things too Stupid for Words:
Goujin was easy to spot out among the spectators, standing rigidly away from the crowd, arms crossed, face cross and white braid heavily hanging down his back reminding him of the burden of his position. Kenren walked two paces towards the white dragon. Stopped, then turned around. Walked. Stopped. Turned around and faced the back of his superior once more.
"I request that I be transferred from the command of Field Marshal Tenpou Gensui to..." Well, he wasn't saying it, but the words came out clear in his mind anyway. All it took was just a tap on the shoulder and he was sure that Goujin would be more than pleased - if 'pleased' would do any justice to the inner euphoria the Dragon King would feel- to have Kenren out of his sight.
The drums announcing the entrance of his men started up, slow and steady as a heartbeat, but there was a certain laziness to it that made it sound like some sort of death march. Goujin tipped his head up to the air, sniffed, then returned to being a marble statue. A death march. And the people cheered wildly.
Confetti and streamers rained down upon him from the balconies of the Holy City, but Kenren's mind was far from it all. He absently reached for his wine flask, poured himself a small sip. Something felt utterly wrong about the situation. A breeze swept through the gates of heaven, utterly freezing and utterly unnoticed by the likes of every kami in sight. Poured himself another sip, warmed up and utterly forgot about it.
*****
Litouten was sputtering insanely. Nataku tried not to take notice, his eyes glued to the proudly marching (and proudly smirking, the boy did not fail to note) regiment as if they had just come back from some victory instead of some lousy snowstorm. And then Litouten was cursing, smacking a servant in the face for some "ultimately unacceptable failure, you louse, get someone out there to do it right this time!"
His father came back to the balcony to sit beside him, red in the face and breathing heavily. "Damnable fools," Litouten grumbled behind his teeth as he leaned over the railing to make sure that the bespectacled man in the white coat was really who he seemed to be. "are the hardest to get rid of."
Nataku pretended not to hear. Pretended to be dumb. Pretended to be still, when his eyes were actually scanning the crowd for a certain itan. A shock of brown hair would be the biggest tip off. He saw a white statue...which moved...which then must have been Goujin...a little behind him was Kenren (Nataku frowned) drinking out of turn...
"It didn't work, how could it be that it didn't work...when a body has no soul...there aren't such things as bloody miracles in heaven."
Nataku pretended not to hear. There was Shien standing off to the left down on the ground with Marshal Tenpou beside him. They seemed deep in conversation, until Shien caught him looking and bowed his head in respectful acknowledgment. The boy briskly nodded and then suddenly raised both his eyebrows in silent astonishment as Tenpou amiably smiled, giving a little wave.
He gaped. What was Tenpou doing, waving at him as if he were just a mere...a...a mere...child? Perhaps it was due to that incident on earth he only heard rumors about. The boy turned to his father who seemed to be furrowing his brow, preoccupied with some inconceivable frustration; looked into the back room now empty. The Marshal probably wasn't himself. Injuries can do that to a person, Nataku concluded.
Something hit his foot, thrown from down below. He picked it up: a delicately made paper crane. Nataku waved back.
*****
"What did you do that for?" Shien asked with disbelief leaking through the well constructed calm of his voice. "It was unnecessary. And disrespectful."
"Children should be receiving toys," Hakkai replied over the cheer of the crowd, "not worship."
Shien's voice frowned, if a voice could frown. "You speak with too much confidence, Tenpou Gensui." the other said flatly, ignoring the light smile that graced Nataku's face as he tinkered with the paper figure. "But then again, I find that far from surprising. What surprises me is that such an acute intellect such as yours needs to be briefed on a matter strictly within your domain."
"I am well aware of the current happenings." The lie came out subtly haughtily and defensive. "But I find it useful to hear it from another person's mouth."
The slow undulation of the drums was suddenly accompanied by the sonorous roar of the great bell whose vibrations sunk down into Hakkai's bones. In rhythm, the soldiers marched and neared. Flutes sounded with the quickness of fluttering birds.
"Or were you expecting to hear something else?" Shien's voice broke through his numbing thoughts.
"Come again?"
"That I am keeping something from you."
"It crossed my mind...though I never would have thought of asking." was the honest response. Either way, Hakkai knew how things were going to end up, secret or no secret. "You have no obligation to speak what you do not wish to say, Shien."
"In heaven, it is one's obligation never to speak what he wishes to say. But keep in mind, Marshal, that from this point until I stop, I am not speaking." And with that, Shien grabbed Hakkai wrist, turned his heel, and then dragged the confused healer into an abandoned alleyway. "I must say, though, that you have been truly dense these past few weeks."
A few snickers from those who saw. "Looks like Tenpou Gensui's found another lover..."
Kenren pretended not to notice.
****
"Your indecision worries me, Marshal."
Shien, as always, had his eyes closed, had his head tilted to the side in question. When he got none, he continued. "Did you not get the note?"
"I get a lot of notes." Hakkai said, leaning against the whitewashed brick wall and trying to fight down that feeling stirring around in his gut. Something about the air. It seemed...just a tad bit putrid.
"Ah, but this was an important one," Shien pursued, then quoted, "They're ready for Kenren Taishou and his men at the mountain path. Surveillance round. Thirty including the general. Orders understood..."
Hakkai's eyes widened. "YOU wrote that? But why?"
"For heaven's sake." the other man quirked the faintest bit of a smile. "And perhaps yours as well. The Taishou..."
// "There are many here who want Tenpou out of the way, namely one noble by the name of Litouten. You've heard of him? Of course not. You just got here...And he is the reason you are here." Kanzeon had said earlier. "Don't be disheartened by the news, Hakkai. It won't last forever. Just don't do anything too stupid. Tenpou is, after all, a secretly hunted man."//
"He's not my responsibility anymore." Hakkai cut in, ashamed. "You saw."
"I didn't interpret. But to the point...these men that now march the streets, I don't think they are as they seem."
"I don't follow."
Shien rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "I have my sources," he continued, without mentioning Homura, "that tell me there exists a type of curse derived from the properties of reflective surfaces that serve as windows between here and Under Heaven. If enough power is utilized, a soul switching can occur. The body is the same, but the mind is not..." Shien paused, then took the time to open his eyes just a crack to be able to look Hakkai straight in the face.
"You understand now?"
The healer gulped, his hands growing instantly cold. "So you are saying that you can be talking to me...and think it is me, but perhaps I am really not here, but down there. Is that it?"
"But of course I am not accusing you-"
"Of course not."
Silence descended upon the two of them, interrupted momentarily by a long winded, "Ten-chaaaaaaaan!!!!!" and a brown blur racing towards them. Goku leaped up and clung to Hakkai's neck.
"Goku." Like a monkey, the boy was hanging off him playfully. "You shouldn't interrupt adults while they're talking." Immense brown orbs looked up at him, smiling widely.
"Gomen, Ten-chan! But Konzen's super busy doing paperstuff and got mad at me and Ken-niichan's sad so I thought I could get you to come cheer him up because I couldn't and if I couldn't I thought you could because you can. On yeah, and Konzen taught me how to count! You want to hear? One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight...nine... ten..."
"Not now, Goku. Later perhaps." With considerable difficulty, Hakkai managed to unwrap the little Goku's iron grip around his neck and placed him gently down on the ground. "Fifteen...sixteen....seventeen..." All the while, Shien said nothing, scanning the second story windows and quickly pulling the three of them further into the shadows as the army passed their section of the street.
Goku sniffed the air, then scrunched up his nose. "Ack." he pouted while pointing to the file of marching kami.
"Twenty...twenty-one...twenty-two...."
Then it dawned on him. That feeling returned, unfamiliar to this body, but to his mind the memory of it all was only too acute. The only thing as painful as rain was youkai...
The boy hid behind Hakkai's coat with childish suspicion. "They smell...like blood."
"I requested that they not be allowed to return." Shien confessed quietly. "But it seems that it never reached the higher ups."
Goku's oblivious-to-the-world counting resumed. "Twenty-five, twenty-six..."
Youkai, Hakkai thought frenetically, youkai in heaven. Youkai in the bodies of kami. Just as he was a youkai, in the body of a kami. Hell in heaven.
"Twenty-seven, twenty eight..."
There was no question of who, but what- and he could divine that as well. Thirty youkai in the bodies of thirty, now-dead heavenly soldiers...they didn't march, they stalked, their hunger barely suppressed. They glared beneath those glazed eyes, thirty pairs of them, thirsted, licked their lips, thirty tongues grazing over sharp teeth.
"They'll spill blood here..." Hakkai choked out as he looked to Shien who had returned to close his eyes.
"And I can only think of two men who have the influence to stand in their way." The man with the bandaged arms turned started to walk in the direction opposite of the Holy City's main street. "I am afraid that with my position in Nataku-sama's army, I can do no more for you. See to your foolish general," He stopped in thought, as if wondering whether to continue with what he was about to say. "Take back his heart before the archer up there pins it to his body."
"Twenty-nine! Aren't you proud of me Ten-chan? I counted all the soldiers. Twenty-nine!"
*****
Heaven seemed like a better place, now that he was tipsy. It gave him a lighter heart- in a way as light as it was before he met Tenpou who was (besides physically satisfying) like a foggy day in the middle of an Under Heaven summer...and alcohol made him poetic... heavy, hot, blinding, fatalistic. Fatalistic and he didn't care either. Learned to live with it, fatalistic, hot, naked, blinding, just close your eyes and let...and alcohol made him forgetful of the present, and reminiscent so that the Now suddenly stuck out like a sore thumb. It was over. Fuck you, Tenpou; you manipulative bastard. I've enough, drop dead at my feet and I wouldn't have the pity to look down. Likewise, I'd bet...
*****
Litouten had grown unusually quiet and Nataku pretended not to notice, dutifully watching the parade like a dutiful son. Litouten was smirking like a cat who had just swallowed a canary and Nataku just sat there, bored, and dutifully watching the parade like a dutiful, bored son- pretending not to notice the fact that they were one man short. And the place was festive. And the cherry blossoms flew. And the flute sounds danced in the dead wind as the heavy drums beat a dead sound to a happy death march. And in a window across the happy dancing death marching parade, Nataku didn't pretend not to see the glint of metal that reflected off a dead sun. The pointy tip of an arrow pretending not to be there.
*****
And they say that gods can't die.
Hakkai ran.
But surely, gods can bleed.
*****
Where the hell is he? Konzen stalked through the crowd, up and down the street. "Goku!" This day, out of all days, boring day in and boring day out...must be the worst of them all. He looked around him to make sure nobody paid attention, then spat indignantly in a convenient place where people would most likely not walk.
Disgusting, putrid water, not water, the god thought to himself, gritting his teeth and fighting the urge to spit again. It was fine fifteen minutes ago, cool and caressing in his throat when he was still at his desk. Then came an arctic cold chill that threw all the papers on his desk into disarray. He sipped again and it was salty-sour, looked into the cup and it was a crimson red.
"Goku!!!!!!" It didn't work. Where was he?
Something wasn't right. And if something wasn't right...
Then perhaps, "Tenpou!!"
As if he hadn't practiced futility enough. So then there was...but he wouldn't, just wouldn't, by the grace of all things right, he wasn't going to say...
"Kenren-taishou!!!!!!!!!" Konzen snapped is head up. It was Nataku. Suddenly a wail arose in the crowd. And then another, and another. And then there was frenetic chaos to the tune of a death march. The blonde fought his way against the tide of rushing gods; through confetti and streamers.
"Somebody find a healer!" someone shouted...roared. Goujin was shouting orders. "Surround the premises and find out where this came from!" Konzen followed the voice then pushed through a final ring of people.
He felt the taste of blood in his mouth again which was even stronger this time now that he was looking at it spewing from a real person. Kenren knelt, gaping, his mouth dropping into a horrific 'o'. He was clutching Tenpou's arms, holding him dumbly as he stared at the arrow that had impaled the marshal of the Western army, which, had it not met the flesh of another being, would have taken him straight through the chest.
But Hakkai still smiled. It made the others nervous and they backed away from the pair. He opened his mouth to speak, seemingly unaware of the blood that trickled down his lips.
"Kanzeon...Kanzeon...does this qualify...as..." he coughed; caughed and smiled even as Kenren seemed to be on the verge of...the world blurred. "...as anything too stupid?"
******
Goujin was easy to spot out among the spectators, standing rigidly away from the crowd, arms crossed, face cross and white braid heavily hanging down his back reminding him of the burden of his position. Kenren walked two paces towards the white dragon. Stopped, then turned around. Walked. Stopped. Turned around and faced the back of his superior once more.
"I request that I be transferred from the command of Field Marshal Tenpou Gensui to..." Well, he wasn't saying it, but the words came out clear in his mind anyway. All it took was just a tap on the shoulder and he was sure that Goujin would be more than pleased - if 'pleased' would do any justice to the inner euphoria the Dragon King would feel- to have Kenren out of his sight.
The drums announcing the entrance of his men started up, slow and steady as a heartbeat, but there was a certain laziness to it that made it sound like some sort of death march. Goujin tipped his head up to the air, sniffed, then returned to being a marble statue. A death march. And the people cheered wildly.
Confetti and streamers rained down upon him from the balconies of the Holy City, but Kenren's mind was far from it all. He absently reached for his wine flask, poured himself a small sip. Something felt utterly wrong about the situation. A breeze swept through the gates of heaven, utterly freezing and utterly unnoticed by the likes of every kami in sight. Poured himself another sip, warmed up and utterly forgot about it.
*****
Litouten was sputtering insanely. Nataku tried not to take notice, his eyes glued to the proudly marching (and proudly smirking, the boy did not fail to note) regiment as if they had just come back from some victory instead of some lousy snowstorm. And then Litouten was cursing, smacking a servant in the face for some "ultimately unacceptable failure, you louse, get someone out there to do it right this time!"
His father came back to the balcony to sit beside him, red in the face and breathing heavily. "Damnable fools," Litouten grumbled behind his teeth as he leaned over the railing to make sure that the bespectacled man in the white coat was really who he seemed to be. "are the hardest to get rid of."
Nataku pretended not to hear. Pretended to be dumb. Pretended to be still, when his eyes were actually scanning the crowd for a certain itan. A shock of brown hair would be the biggest tip off. He saw a white statue...which moved...which then must have been Goujin...a little behind him was Kenren (Nataku frowned) drinking out of turn...
"It didn't work, how could it be that it didn't work...when a body has no soul...there aren't such things as bloody miracles in heaven."
Nataku pretended not to hear. There was Shien standing off to the left down on the ground with Marshal Tenpou beside him. They seemed deep in conversation, until Shien caught him looking and bowed his head in respectful acknowledgment. The boy briskly nodded and then suddenly raised both his eyebrows in silent astonishment as Tenpou amiably smiled, giving a little wave.
He gaped. What was Tenpou doing, waving at him as if he were just a mere...a...a mere...child? Perhaps it was due to that incident on earth he only heard rumors about. The boy turned to his father who seemed to be furrowing his brow, preoccupied with some inconceivable frustration; looked into the back room now empty. The Marshal probably wasn't himself. Injuries can do that to a person, Nataku concluded.
Something hit his foot, thrown from down below. He picked it up: a delicately made paper crane. Nataku waved back.
*****
"What did you do that for?" Shien asked with disbelief leaking through the well constructed calm of his voice. "It was unnecessary. And disrespectful."
"Children should be receiving toys," Hakkai replied over the cheer of the crowd, "not worship."
Shien's voice frowned, if a voice could frown. "You speak with too much confidence, Tenpou Gensui." the other said flatly, ignoring the light smile that graced Nataku's face as he tinkered with the paper figure. "But then again, I find that far from surprising. What surprises me is that such an acute intellect such as yours needs to be briefed on a matter strictly within your domain."
"I am well aware of the current happenings." The lie came out subtly haughtily and defensive. "But I find it useful to hear it from another person's mouth."
The slow undulation of the drums was suddenly accompanied by the sonorous roar of the great bell whose vibrations sunk down into Hakkai's bones. In rhythm, the soldiers marched and neared. Flutes sounded with the quickness of fluttering birds.
"Or were you expecting to hear something else?" Shien's voice broke through his numbing thoughts.
"Come again?"
"That I am keeping something from you."
"It crossed my mind...though I never would have thought of asking." was the honest response. Either way, Hakkai knew how things were going to end up, secret or no secret. "You have no obligation to speak what you do not wish to say, Shien."
"In heaven, it is one's obligation never to speak what he wishes to say. But keep in mind, Marshal, that from this point until I stop, I am not speaking." And with that, Shien grabbed Hakkai wrist, turned his heel, and then dragged the confused healer into an abandoned alleyway. "I must say, though, that you have been truly dense these past few weeks."
A few snickers from those who saw. "Looks like Tenpou Gensui's found another lover..."
Kenren pretended not to notice.
****
"Your indecision worries me, Marshal."
Shien, as always, had his eyes closed, had his head tilted to the side in question. When he got none, he continued. "Did you not get the note?"
"I get a lot of notes." Hakkai said, leaning against the whitewashed brick wall and trying to fight down that feeling stirring around in his gut. Something about the air. It seemed...just a tad bit putrid.
"Ah, but this was an important one," Shien pursued, then quoted, "They're ready for Kenren Taishou and his men at the mountain path. Surveillance round. Thirty including the general. Orders understood..."
Hakkai's eyes widened. "YOU wrote that? But why?"
"For heaven's sake." the other man quirked the faintest bit of a smile. "And perhaps yours as well. The Taishou..."
// "There are many here who want Tenpou out of the way, namely one noble by the name of Litouten. You've heard of him? Of course not. You just got here...And he is the reason you are here." Kanzeon had said earlier. "Don't be disheartened by the news, Hakkai. It won't last forever. Just don't do anything too stupid. Tenpou is, after all, a secretly hunted man."//
"He's not my responsibility anymore." Hakkai cut in, ashamed. "You saw."
"I didn't interpret. But to the point...these men that now march the streets, I don't think they are as they seem."
"I don't follow."
Shien rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "I have my sources," he continued, without mentioning Homura, "that tell me there exists a type of curse derived from the properties of reflective surfaces that serve as windows between here and Under Heaven. If enough power is utilized, a soul switching can occur. The body is the same, but the mind is not..." Shien paused, then took the time to open his eyes just a crack to be able to look Hakkai straight in the face.
"You understand now?"
The healer gulped, his hands growing instantly cold. "So you are saying that you can be talking to me...and think it is me, but perhaps I am really not here, but down there. Is that it?"
"But of course I am not accusing you-"
"Of course not."
Silence descended upon the two of them, interrupted momentarily by a long winded, "Ten-chaaaaaaaan!!!!!" and a brown blur racing towards them. Goku leaped up and clung to Hakkai's neck.
"Goku." Like a monkey, the boy was hanging off him playfully. "You shouldn't interrupt adults while they're talking." Immense brown orbs looked up at him, smiling widely.
"Gomen, Ten-chan! But Konzen's super busy doing paperstuff and got mad at me and Ken-niichan's sad so I thought I could get you to come cheer him up because I couldn't and if I couldn't I thought you could because you can. On yeah, and Konzen taught me how to count! You want to hear? One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight...nine... ten..."
"Not now, Goku. Later perhaps." With considerable difficulty, Hakkai managed to unwrap the little Goku's iron grip around his neck and placed him gently down on the ground. "Fifteen...sixteen....seventeen..." All the while, Shien said nothing, scanning the second story windows and quickly pulling the three of them further into the shadows as the army passed their section of the street.
Goku sniffed the air, then scrunched up his nose. "Ack." he pouted while pointing to the file of marching kami.
"Twenty...twenty-one...twenty-two...."
Then it dawned on him. That feeling returned, unfamiliar to this body, but to his mind the memory of it all was only too acute. The only thing as painful as rain was youkai...
The boy hid behind Hakkai's coat with childish suspicion. "They smell...like blood."
"I requested that they not be allowed to return." Shien confessed quietly. "But it seems that it never reached the higher ups."
Goku's oblivious-to-the-world counting resumed. "Twenty-five, twenty-six..."
Youkai, Hakkai thought frenetically, youkai in heaven. Youkai in the bodies of kami. Just as he was a youkai, in the body of a kami. Hell in heaven.
"Twenty-seven, twenty eight..."
There was no question of who, but what- and he could divine that as well. Thirty youkai in the bodies of thirty, now-dead heavenly soldiers...they didn't march, they stalked, their hunger barely suppressed. They glared beneath those glazed eyes, thirty pairs of them, thirsted, licked their lips, thirty tongues grazing over sharp teeth.
"They'll spill blood here..." Hakkai choked out as he looked to Shien who had returned to close his eyes.
"And I can only think of two men who have the influence to stand in their way." The man with the bandaged arms turned started to walk in the direction opposite of the Holy City's main street. "I am afraid that with my position in Nataku-sama's army, I can do no more for you. See to your foolish general," He stopped in thought, as if wondering whether to continue with what he was about to say. "Take back his heart before the archer up there pins it to his body."
"Twenty-nine! Aren't you proud of me Ten-chan? I counted all the soldiers. Twenty-nine!"
*****
Heaven seemed like a better place, now that he was tipsy. It gave him a lighter heart- in a way as light as it was before he met Tenpou who was (besides physically satisfying) like a foggy day in the middle of an Under Heaven summer...and alcohol made him poetic... heavy, hot, blinding, fatalistic. Fatalistic and he didn't care either. Learned to live with it, fatalistic, hot, naked, blinding, just close your eyes and let...and alcohol made him forgetful of the present, and reminiscent so that the Now suddenly stuck out like a sore thumb. It was over. Fuck you, Tenpou; you manipulative bastard. I've enough, drop dead at my feet and I wouldn't have the pity to look down. Likewise, I'd bet...
*****
Litouten had grown unusually quiet and Nataku pretended not to notice, dutifully watching the parade like a dutiful son. Litouten was smirking like a cat who had just swallowed a canary and Nataku just sat there, bored, and dutifully watching the parade like a dutiful, bored son- pretending not to notice the fact that they were one man short. And the place was festive. And the cherry blossoms flew. And the flute sounds danced in the dead wind as the heavy drums beat a dead sound to a happy death march. And in a window across the happy dancing death marching parade, Nataku didn't pretend not to see the glint of metal that reflected off a dead sun. The pointy tip of an arrow pretending not to be there.
*****
And they say that gods can't die.
Hakkai ran.
But surely, gods can bleed.
*****
Where the hell is he? Konzen stalked through the crowd, up and down the street. "Goku!" This day, out of all days, boring day in and boring day out...must be the worst of them all. He looked around him to make sure nobody paid attention, then spat indignantly in a convenient place where people would most likely not walk.
Disgusting, putrid water, not water, the god thought to himself, gritting his teeth and fighting the urge to spit again. It was fine fifteen minutes ago, cool and caressing in his throat when he was still at his desk. Then came an arctic cold chill that threw all the papers on his desk into disarray. He sipped again and it was salty-sour, looked into the cup and it was a crimson red.
"Goku!!!!!!" It didn't work. Where was he?
Something wasn't right. And if something wasn't right...
Then perhaps, "Tenpou!!"
As if he hadn't practiced futility enough. So then there was...but he wouldn't, just wouldn't, by the grace of all things right, he wasn't going to say...
"Kenren-taishou!!!!!!!!!" Konzen snapped is head up. It was Nataku. Suddenly a wail arose in the crowd. And then another, and another. And then there was frenetic chaos to the tune of a death march. The blonde fought his way against the tide of rushing gods; through confetti and streamers.
"Somebody find a healer!" someone shouted...roared. Goujin was shouting orders. "Surround the premises and find out where this came from!" Konzen followed the voice then pushed through a final ring of people.
He felt the taste of blood in his mouth again which was even stronger this time now that he was looking at it spewing from a real person. Kenren knelt, gaping, his mouth dropping into a horrific 'o'. He was clutching Tenpou's arms, holding him dumbly as he stared at the arrow that had impaled the marshal of the Western army, which, had it not met the flesh of another being, would have taken him straight through the chest.
But Hakkai still smiled. It made the others nervous and they backed away from the pair. He opened his mouth to speak, seemingly unaware of the blood that trickled down his lips.
"Kanzeon...Kanzeon...does this qualify...as..." he coughed; caughed and smiled even as Kenren seemed to be on the verge of...the world blurred. "...as anything too stupid?"
******